[i][b][center]I care not for bone nor flesh nor gold, Name your price, my limbs, my heart, my soul[/center][/b][/i] Succumbed with rage the mad king had forgone any possibility of Alistair being a decoy, a mistake that spelled his own undoing and the realization only striking once too late. “What is thi-“ Gadrael thought out loud, an expression of disbelief outlining his scarred face. His sentence being interrupted due to the arrival of yet another foe, a hound of A.M.R.O who had sniffed the opportunity to capitalize on the King’s lack of awareness. His muscles slowly tensed as a sturdy metal chain coiled around him, the cold sting etching onto his skin as the gauntlet wielding Asylum held a firm and unnatural grip. Struggling proved fruitless, his flailing merely accomplishing in the bind’s reinforcement which gradually drew him towards the Asylum whose eyes blazed with a vengeance that appeared far too nostalgic. [i]“Those eyes,”[/i] unwanted thought slowly crawled out of the vault in which Gadrael suppressed them, maddening thoughts that began to petrify the Alchemist. [i]”Yes..those were the eyes of Sasha…such was the hatred she felt when her limbs were torn apart,”[/i] motionless he stood, with eyes gaping wide as if staring at a re-run of his worse memories, a torturous state far worse than death. The Council were renowned rogues, their notoriety proved them to be capable and powerful Alchemists and as such it should have been child’s play for the likes of Gadrael to rip through those chains and impale the Asylum with her own shattered bones. [i]”What is this?”[/i] A strange fear had ensnared the King compromising his mental faculty. [i]”No Sasha…run..get away. He is coming towards you, stop it. Just take the child and run Sasha!”[/i] He screamed and yet his lips refused to part, an anguish unlike any other. [i]”Oh god he is here, the Unblinking Asylum is here.[/i] [i]”Get your hands of her! No, stop pulling her arm…it will rip apart, stop it![/i] [i]”Please don’t do this, she is bleeding. She isn’t even an Alchemist, have mercy. No…please don’t hurt her any more; you will rip her legs apart!”[/i] [i]”You killed her…..damn you! My wife is in pieces…..I’ll kill you, I’ll kill all of you!”[/i] [i]”Get your filthy hand of my face….oh god it burns….my face…my face!”[/i] [i]”..H.have…..m.mercy…..p.please….n.not…. my….not my…c.child….NO!”[/i] Before the Mad King could realize it, he was standing right in front of the gauntlet wielding Asylum, his wide soulless eyes staring into hers and yet lost in oblivion. His distraught nature giving Vail the perfect excuse to wreak havoc. The opening had presented itself and with that her punch instantly connected to his temple, the force great enough to draw blood. The probability of success continued to wane as yet another Asylum had entered the fray slashing him from behind. While Gadrael’s mind wandered elsewhere his body clearly began to give way, the toll too much to bear. Soon enough a sickening crack echoed as the King fell to his knee, his shin clearly taking the brunt of the punishment. [i]“They must pay, they must all pay,”[/i] like a broken record these words played back, over and over again. The proud King now sat kneeling before his foes, his face lifelessly staring at the sky while his shadow danced around him. “No…I am not the one….who is going to die!” An eerie sensation emanated from Gadrael, his broken body releasing a surprising amount of alchemic energy as he venomously spat these words. His petrified stance finally shattering with the Alchemist shutting his eye lids in order to compose himself. This fleeting peace lasting but seconds as in an instant his eyes were forced wide open once more, a surge of pain coursing through his body causing the Mad King to howl in agony. Both his shoulders, his right arm, his left leg and his stomach were impaled by his own shadow, manifested as menacing black spikes. “Fuck all of you!” Gadrael’s body was bound, not only by the chains but also by his shadow. There was nothing the wounded King could do other than swear and struggle, and struggle he did with all his vigor. His body violently flailed about, the flesh and muscles on his right arm slowly tore and ripped and then still, motionless once more. A morbid expression spread across his face, his eyes tearing blood as they gazed at what approached him. “They impaired my mind and restricted me, all of that was just the prelude to this. Little Arya, daddy is sorry. Daddy couldn’t protect you or mommy and now [b]Daddy won’t be able to avenge you[/b],” a devastated Gadrael stared onto his doom. A giant flaming phoenix soared through the skies leaving behind a trail of embers, its wings blazing with enough intensity to mold sand into glass. Behind it a storm of dust and metal approached rapidly, a tornado of shards. Eventually the two alchemic attacks came to a point of equilibrium, melding together into a frightening mal-creation of Alchemy. The wings of the phoenix wrapped themselves around the tornado igniting it ablaze. It is common knowledge when sand is heated to a specific degree it turn to glass, what Gadrael faced now was a tornado of flames filled with glass shards and molten metal. [b]”UNLESS!”[/b] A wicked smirk slowly spread across the King’s face as he stared onto his demise, his eyes reflecting the flames that approached him and it is in these flames he reached a point of maddening epiphany. [i]“Do you want to get out of this hell? You see your wife torn to pieces, you see your child in a far worse fate. Do you seek vengeance? Do you seek power? But you are dying, helpless, pathetic. What can you do? Do you have the will to accept the madness I am to bestow upon you? More so, are you willing to accept the consequences of it or would you rather drown in the blood of your loved ones?”[/i] A voice echoed within his head, words from the past, words spoken to Gadrael when he was sprawled across the ground, living on borrowed time. His hazy gaze only made out a tall silhouette that stared down at him, a hand reaching out offering the would-be-king a deal, a promise to give him the strength to survive. [i]”All you have to do is shake my hand and I will share with you the forbidden knowledge, the art to destroy your enemy by destroying yourself. And all you have to say to activate the forbidden alchemy…is……….---“[/i] [b]“I care not for bone nor flesh nor gold!”[/b] These words echoed through the outskirts, the intensity of this verse far outshining any and all noise that dared to supersede it’s authority. [b]“Name your price, my limbs, my heart, my soul!”[/b] The sheer desperation with which the Mad King sang these words possessed a strange kind of beauty, much like a canary singing its heart out from within a cage. [b]“My right arm I sacrifice to smite thee a hundred fold!”[/b] As he howled these words a dark and thick aura draped his body, sinking into his very flesh healing his wounds to a minor degree and magnifying his alchemic energy nearly double and than double once more, this process slowly continuing granting him the strength equivalent to a hundred Asylums. However first the toll needed to be paid and the instrument of his amputation had been flung his way. “How generous of you little bitch,” the king scoffed, his arrogance and confidence returning in bulk. All the binds that restraint him appeared to corrode and decay, even the shadows appeared to be swallowed by the strange dark aura that danced around the Mad King. His left hand lazily reaching forward in the nick of time to grab onto the large disk constructed of raw energy. “Yes this will do nicely,” the king nodded in satisfaction before raising the disk upon high and in one quick blow, slicing his right arm as clean as possible. Even so that didn’t stop his arteries from being severed resulting in a fountain of blood gushing out; however before it could escalate the wound was quickly seared by the King burning his own arm. “I believe I am forgetting something, ah yes” Gadrael remarked sarcastically as he turned his frame to meet the massive flaming tornado that dwarfed all via comparison. “Let me show you all the power of forbidden Alchemy!” The Mad King screamed followed by a hysterical fit of laughter, his foot stomping the ground hitting the hilt of his blade causing it to spring up, flipping in mid-air and landing in his left hand while the blade itself rested atop his shoulder. “Break” With that the King flung his left arm forward, thrusting the blade towards the tornado till the tip of the blade finally made contact. Strangely the tornado refused to move forward, the single tip of his blade held the massive monster at bay and slowly the aura that surrounded the King seeped onto his blade, infecting the tornado, engulfing it all, eating away at it till nothing remained. “Time for each and everyone of you to die!” If insanity ever had an expression, the King wore it’s mask. His laughter, his actions and his demeanor everything reflected but one characteristic, the lust for destruction. “You, Gauntlet bitch!” He pointed towards the Asylum before instantly dematerializing and rematerializing behind her. “You like hand to hand combat right? Let’s see how you fair against a cripple?” He crowed, his smile continuing to widen. Not allowing Vail a chance for a second opening the King planted his fist into her stomach, the sheer force of that attack resulting in a strong shock wave being pushed out of her back. Noticing her eyes roll back, Gadrael quickly leaned forward holding the girl steady by grabbing her gauntlets. His hands slowly clenching her gauntlets as his eyes stare into hers, a frightening stare while he crushed her gauntlets till the metal sinks into her flesh. “Don’t fuck with the King!” With that said, the raving king effortlessly flung her onto the ice pillar, the impact destroying it leaving the pair unconscious in each other’s arms. “You two are next!” He whispered as his neck slowly tilted towards the directions of Kiara and Gregor. The toxic aura that surrounded him suddenly appeared to ooze and drip onto the ground forming little black sludge skeletal minions that crawled towards the two Asylums that had been targeted. Their speed astounding and as soon as they reached their designated target, they latched on, engulfing the target in black slime and finally detonating. “Now the rest of you fucking dogs,” he scowled, a menacing almost beastly grunt escaping his mouth. His body charged rampantly towards the direction of Fletcher, laughter echoing while his blade swings about purposelessly. “You are unconscious? That is no fun,” Gadrael remarked disappointedly before grabbing onto his shoulder and squeezing with enough force to dislocate it, the immeasurable pain causing Fletcher to snap out of his slumber only for his face to greet the rocky terrain, multiple times. Once the doctor was out the Mad King slowly approached yet another feisty woman, Siera. “By your expression I can tell you are new at this, I hope I didn’t make a bad first impression?” The King sarcastically questioned, laughter ensuing once more amidst which he couldn’t help but stomp the floor in amusement resulting in two massive walls surfacing out of the ground, with the female Asylum right in the middle. “It is because of your kind my wife won’t make me any sandwiches, it’s only fair you make me one,” he crowed with a fiendish grind, a snap of his fingers causing the two walls to collide, smashing into Siera. “Oh joy, oh joy, so many pretty girls around me. But woe is me ladies, I am a married man. Oh wait, no I’m not, I guess I can tap that if you want!” The nonsense this Raving King uttered only assured the fact that his mental state was degrading and quite rapidly at that. In all the ensuing mayhem it was nearly impossible to keep track of Gadrael, his ravenous appetite for destruction made him far too unpredictable. “Hello you two,” refusing to give either of the Asylum a time to react Gadrael’s palm found its way to Lina’s back while the sole of his shoe planted itself onto Kai’s chest. “Bye you two” With that amusing greeting, a devastating kinetic blast released itself from his palm as well as the sole of his foot. The monstrous blast had flung the two Asylums nearly fifty feet while also particularly targeting their nerves so as to stimulate pain and escalate it to a terrifying degree. “Now that I have had my fun, I am going to ki—“ Once again the King found himself speechless, his body starting to lose the stability it had gained causing Gadrael to fall to his knees. His hand covered his mouth as his eyes cringed in pain, the wounds in his body had begun to open and his clothes had already soaked a good portion of his blood. Though what hindered the Alchemist the most were his internal injuries as well as the strain forbidden alchemy was taking on his body, even an Alchemists is foolish to push himself to such lengths. The mind and the body have their limits, adhering to his limits a begrudging Gadrael finally called a seize fire, realizing if the Asylums could muster enough strength to retaliate they would surely kill him. “I will be retreating; all remaining soldiers are to destroy the Asylums, those fuckers won’t be much trouble now!” Their leader screamed his instruction, the hand that covered his mouth revealing blood. “Damn it, we need leverage…that’s it!” Taking advantage of the injuries the Asylums had sustained, the wounded King slowly limped towards the paralyzed Asylum, hoisting Maeve upon his shoulders and teleporting in a wisp of black smoke. A group of five Kings now salvaged ground zero for any surviving Asylums, their claymores brandished tightly, a confident smile on their faces as these cowards joke and jest about the hound of A.M.R.O trying to go up against the true Kings of a world that was their divine birth right. “Hey look I think this one here is still alive!” One of the King shouted, kicking the body of Kiara mockingly. “Oh yea look at that bitch squirm, what say we kill her slowly, have some fun first eh?” Another one of the Forsaken replied, raising an eyebrow along with a fiendish smile. “I am sorry but all you gentleman are going to do is die, I don’t suppose you lot can just commit suicide and save me the trouble?” The King suddenly turned around, gripping their swords even tighter to face the blasphemer who would dare deny a right of a King. “Who said that, don’t you know who we are? We are the true Kings and if you try and come in our way you will die like all these sheep around us.” One of the King’s scoffed, his hand brushing away at the air, gesturing the person in front of them to get lost. The gentleman in red couldn't help but smile as he calmly remained seated upon his large metal coffin. “You guys are pretty dumb huh?” An innocent and childish voice spoke up, causing the King’s to look up to notice a small girl seated on the shoulder of the man who appeared to be wearing a crimson coat. “What did you call me you little bit-“ Before the crude rogue could finish his sentence, a flick from the Crimson Asylum’s finger, he was quite literally ripped apart. The ground littered with pieces of his body. “I am going to ask this just once, do pay attention. Exactly how did Gadrael come to possess the knowledge of forbidden alchemy?” The blood draped Alchemist spoke once more, his words far more menacing, for they no longer hid behind the façade of casualty. “What the hell are you talking about, damn fuck this guy, just kill him!” Only the sounds flesh slowly ripping apart, bones breaking and screams echoed after, lasting for hours before the duo of demons finally made their exit, though not alone. ------------------Xx----------xX------------------ A.M.R.O Bunker # 4582 Location: Under the Caesar palace -----------------Xx----------xX------------------ “Hey big brother spin me again, spin me again!” Rena cheered, her arms swinging about as her partner lazily obeyed, spinning the office chair upon which she sought to curb her boredom. “Hey big bro when do you think the rest of them will wake up? You usually wake me up; do they also need someone to wake them up?” The little Chrono curiously looked up, staring at her partner in her usual adorably clueless nature. “I don’t think so my dear little partner. They took heavy damage; in fact I am surprised this lot managed to survive. They went up against forbidden alchemy without even realizing its full grasp and hopefully they never will.” Angel replied politely, a king smile on his face as his hand slowly gave his partner a little pat, a gesture the Chrono appeared to appreciate quite a lot. “Why is that, is it a secret!” The prodigy replied once more, an exuberant smile on her face as if expecting a compliment for her deductive capabilities. “Spot on little Sherlock,” XIII nodded with the compliment that his partner awaited. “You see if A.M.R.O won’t allow the knowledge of forbidden alchemy to spread and if it suspects an Asylum from knowing it, well there is a reason why Asylums are digits…they are expendable and replaceable...you can’t kill a number.” “So are we supposed to kill them?” The little princess replied once more, her eyes scrutinizing the Asylums that lay in strange pods. A strange disappointment in her eyes, not one aroused from killing her comrades but one from a dull kill. “No no, they aren’t entirely useless. We still need them. The fact that we have encountered forbidden alchemy has complicated things a lot more. So yes luckily all these Asylums will recuperate just fine. The pods they are in contain a special bio-serum designed by A.M.R.O. It basically fortifies their immune system and speeds up their natural regenerative capabilities. Broken bones, torn flesh should not be a problem.” “Recop..ora..de?” Rena replied back, giggling at the amusing word. Her giggles soon turning to laughter which even her partner couldn’t deny joining in. “I just hope these people don’t ask questions, it is far too trying to explain everything,” Angel wearily thought out loud while rubbing his temple. “Big brother you pervo, you aren’t worried about these people being completely naked!” His partner retorted, glaring furiously at him. “Well after all that has been said and done, I am sure they could use a good comic relief.” [center]~And there is that devilish smile again~[/center]